Cezar is an MIT control center that runs Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Pi, and other coding agents around the clock on your machine or a VPS, steered from a responsive web cockpit.
The bet is that agents should keep working while you are away, and that worktree discipline, race-and-pick parallelism, and a review gate are what make unattended runs trustworthy.
What it is #
A Node 20+ app installed from npm (@open-mercato/cezar) or a desktop-app track, using your existing CLI logins rather than API keys (claude, codex, copilot, cursor, agy, junie, opencode, pi).
Every task runs in its own full checkout, with a bounded worktree disk (retention default ten, per-row delete, a reclaim button) so a busy server stays clean.
Parallel agents can race the same task in separate worktrees: you compare diffs side by side and pick one, and the losers are archived with their worktrees cleaned up.
A finished run with changes waits at a review gate: read the diff, then push a draft PR; the cockpit carries a live event stream of agent text, tool calls, and screenshots, per-step token and cost usage, and scheduled starts keyed to a date, a time, or the account’s observed usage-limit reset.
A GitHub panel reads issues and pull requests through your logged-in gh and hands an issue straight to an agent, GitHub Enterprise included; point a browser (laptop or phone) at the VPS and the team keeps working.
By open-mercato, the OpenMercato ERP team, repository created 2026-05-19.
Status #
Active: 904 stars, 169 forks, and 265 open issues and pull requests as of 2026-11-01 (GitHub API), pushed 2026-11-01, with 30 releases through v0.18.0 on 2026-10-31 plus a desktop track (desktop-v0.1.11, 2026-10-23). The npm package shows 1,544 published versions since July 2026 (near-daily publishes) and 95,851 downloads in October 2026.
Coverage is a launch echo: one 15-point Hacker News story (2026-10-01) and two small echo posts, then nothing, so the footprint is the repository, the npm numbers, and the cezar.run site.
Strengths #
- The worktree lifecycle is the most complete in the category: bounded disk with retention, race-and-pick parallelism, and loser cleanup are all built in.
- Usage-window-aware scheduled starts (waiting for the plan’s limit reset) turn quota into a scheduling input no other member reads.
- The cockpit’s event stream, cost accounting, and phone-first review make long unattended runs inspectable from anywhere.
Cautions #
- Coverage beyond the launch echo is absent as of 2026-11-01; adoption evidence is npm downloads, which a young project can inflate with CI publishes (1,544 versions since July).
- The vendor’s cloud sandbox upsell sits beside the free product, and its price table is not public.
- Young (created May 2026) and pre-1.0, backed by an ERP vendor rather than an agent-tools specialist.
Pricing #
Free and open source under MIT, self-hosted. The vendor sells hosted cloud sandboxes for 24/7 coding (“start for free”), with no public price table found as of 2026-11-01.
Compared to #
- Omnara: the YC control plane supervising agents from dashboard, phone, CLI, and Slack; Cezar adds the worktree lifecycle and race-and-pick execution.
- Paseo: the daemon with desktop, web, and mobile clients; Cezar is the VPS-always-on counterpart with review gates.
- Emdash: the desktop ADE for parallel worktree tasks; Cezar moves the same pattern to a browser-driven server.
Bottom line #
Recommended for engineers who want an always-on agent box on a VPS with genuine worktree hygiene and a human review gate. Not for GUI-desktop-first users, and not for teams needing a hosted control plane with published pricing.
Changes #
- 2026-11-01 - Created.
See also #
- Omnara - the control-plane sibling with phone supervision
- Paseo - the daemon-plus-clients contrast
- Emdash - the desktop ADE this moves server-side
- Vibe Kanban - the board-first alternative without the worktree lifecycle
References #
https://api.github.com/repos/open-mercato/cezar - stars, license, and activity as of 2026-11-01
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/open-mercato/cezar/HEAD/README.md - the control-center model, supported CLIs, and install paths
https://registry.npmjs.org/@open-mercato/cezar - the npm package, 1,544 versions since July 2026
https://api.npmjs.org/downloads/point/2026-10-01:2026-10-31/@open-mercato/cezar - October 2026 downloads (95,851)
https://cezar.run/ - the product site
https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?query=cezar.run&hitsPerPage=5 - the launch-echo coverage (15 points, 2026-10-01)